Lesson steps

1. Piano key note names

This step shows the white and black note names on a piano keyboard so that the note names are familiar for later steps, and to show that the note names start repeating themselves after 12 notes.

The white keys are named using the alphabetic letters A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, which is a pattern that repeats up the piano keyboard.

Every white or black key could have a flat(b) or sharp(#) accidental name, depending on how that note is used. In a later step, if sharp or flat notes are used, the exact accidental names will be chosen.

The audio files below play every note shown on the piano above, so middle C (marked with an orange line at the bottom) is the 2nd note heard.

5. F-sharp natural minor scale note names

The white and black keys are the same as those used in Step 3 above, which is why it is called the relative minor - the two scales have the same note names.

The difference between a major scale and the relative minor is that the notes are played starting from a different note, and they sound different to each other because different intervals were used to build each scale (Steps 2 and 4 above).

The major scale will sound happier than the relative minor because it separates notes 2 and 3 with a whole tone (2 piano keys), whereas the relative minor only has one half-tone / semitone (1 piano key) separating them, which gives a sadder feel to the scale.